Nightmare
by Galimatias
Summary: Wreck it Ralph: Vanellope was fine with being alone. At least that's what she told herself. Of course, on that one night where she woke, alone, from a nightmare she had a very hard time telling herself anything and believing it. And for the first time, Vanellope found herself admitting, "I just don't wanna be alone."


**WRECK IT RALPH FANFICTION: And yes- I know the movie's not out yet. THANKS JR. NOVELIZATION!**

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**Have anyone of you ever seen what writer vomit looks like? Well, for those who haven't here it is! Pure, disgusting, writer vomit. Written when the writer (ahem, me) is too lazy and writer blocked up to write new chapters for their (her) other stories. Stories that are currently under high demand. And that this will most likely get a bad reaction from because she (I) have too much of a writers block to continue. **

**Well, first off, a quick emotional help for all my followers. This was an exercize to get rid of writers block. I literally have a book of exercizes to help me do that. It's called "Writers Block" and it's shaped like a block. I'm not kidding. Look it up. It's, like, $15 at Barnes & Noble. Anyway, this was just to get my mind working.**

**The second reason; I don't know if you've heard, but Hurricane Sandy is fast aproaching. And I _was_ working on my other stuff when a thought reached my brain. What would happen if the power went out? We are in the direct path of the hurricane, and they said power would be lost. What if I lost all of this? So I quickly saved and closed the document and began a new, less valuble won. **

**Thus, this hurricane fear induced peice of writer vomit was born. Is it fluffy? Yes. Is it filled with slight spoilers? Yes. ****Is it good? Well, you can decide.**

**So to all my followers, leave a review, or not. And if you want, PM me with any ideas you want to see for my other stories. And to _really_make up for some broken hearts right now, my new chapter I was writing was almost totally filled with Wile and Lillie flirting. That's it. Just him flirting with her and she almost always blowing him off. And if you read that right, then squeal in delight. If you didn't, let me repeat myself. _aaaallllmoooost _always. See what I did there? ;)**

**Anyway, this is probobly filled with errors. I wrote it in about fifteen minutes with no breaks. So... yeah. **

**And for anyone interested in actually reading this author note to the end, it will have a part two. **

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Vanellope was fine with being alone. Or so she told herself. So what if she lived alone, she'd lived alone for so long. It wasn't like she wasn't used to it by now. Who cared if one little girl lived alone. Especially in a game where every child, all of them around the ages of nine and ten, lived by themselves in one person households. Even Taffyta, up until now her tormenter, lived by herself and was perfectly fine.

So she was too.

At least, that's what she told herself.

So what if she had finally gotten used to having someone take care of her for once? So what if, for the first time, she'd finally gotten something other then people laughing and excluding her. Ralph still came to visit after work, and still talked to her. That didn't mean everything had to change at nighttime too. Nighttime, as it always had been, was a time for her to be alone. Her. A nine year old girl. Alone.

That was fine.

At least that's what she told herself.

Vanellope, after years of practice, was excellent at telling herself things and believing half of them.

Of course, on that one night where she woke up from a nightmare she had a very hard time telling herself anything and believing it. She had fallen asleep very quickly that night, worn out from everything during the day. Her head had hit her sponge cake pillow before she had a chance to even turn the light out. And when she woke up, shivering and crying, the light had still been on. It should have forced reality through her brain, that everything was fine and that there was nothing wrong, but somehow it wouldn't work. Reality had no hold on the child as she sprung out of bed, forgetting all about her slippers sitting next to her and bolting out, barely remembering to don her tiara, which she ungracefully plopped on her messy hair before sprinting out.

Vanellope ran, and ran and ran, not caring if it was hard to see through the tears. Not caring if her feet were cold without her slippers or that her pink pajamas were brown with chocolate by the end. All she cared about was one thing, and she had to make sure that that thing was still okay. Her dream had been far too real for her liking. And so, without any hesitation or thought to what she could be getting herself into or the dangers that could have befallen her, Vanellope Von Shweets raced through the barrier towards Game Central Station.

Ralph was very new to having an apartment. He had finally been given one by the Nicelanders, who didn't seem to fully trust him yet, but didn't cower whenever he entered a room which he deemed to be a great improvement. And though they really hadn't given him much to make up for all the years of torment they had put him through, they had given him an apartment. A larger one that wasn't in use on one of the top floors. And for that, he was willing to forgive and forget.

Ralph never had many valuables, so moving in had been a breeze. All he had needed to transport were a few sets of overalls and shirts, pajamas and the two medals he had earned. His Hero's Duty medal, which got a nice sport on top of a bookshelf, and his handmade one from Vanellope which he placed in a frame on the wall- his most prized position.

It had taken him no time at all to adjust to apartment life from that of a life in the brick pile. And it was much more enjoyable. He loved having an actual bed that he could go to sleep and wake up in and he loved having access to hot showers at any time, not needing to go to the basement and use the ones saved for employees. All in all it was great. Just as he had expected it to be- maybe even better.

What he did not expect was that, after a few weeks of being settled in the apartment, he would have a break in.

With no alarm system installed (because in what world called Niceland would one ever need an alarm system) he had to rely on senses. And so, at around 1 o'clock in the morning when Ralph had been comfortably settled in and asleep for a few hours there was a small click of a door being opened.

Ralph had heard it, and awoken just enough to listen closer. His head was still filled with cotton and nothing was as clear as it would have been in the morning. So he sat up, just slightly, and listened. There was nothing but the sound of 'boops' and 'beeps' from the crickets in the Niceland forest and the occasional snores of people on the floors below him. After a moment more of listening he fluffed his pillow and lay back down, burrowing under the covers and ready to drift off to slee-

CRASH

Ralph was up in seconds as a sound, followed by a yelp, sounded from the living room. He threw off the covers and bounded to his bedroom door, throwing it open. His hand went to the wall, finding the light switch and flicking it on, his other hand forming a fist, ready to strike the intruder down to the ground.

What he expected to see was a cybug or maybe a tradition burglar with the black mask, gun in hand.

What he did see was a little girl tangled up in a pile of chords from one of his boxes he hadn't yet unpacked. Her face was flushed and her tiny hands were clawing desperately at the cords that wrapped around her body. And upon closer inspection he saw that her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Vanallope?" Her head snapped up, raven hair messy and bouncing with her every move. She just stared at him for a moment, going over his features with large eyes that seen filled with relief that quickly spread over her entire face, and in that moment she looked just about ready to burst into tears. "Hey, what're you doing out of Sugar Rush."

Her eyes immediately went to her lap, fingers twiddling in her lap. She shrugged, never one to like emotions. Especially her own.

"Did you walk here?" She nodded slowly, pointing to the tiara that had landed a few feet away from her. "Alone." Again, she nodded. Ralph sighed, kneeling down to help untangle her. It took a few minutes, the plastic cables having snaked every which way and knotted themselves together. But he finally had her out of the bindings and she stood on shaky legs, tugging at the ends of her pink pajama set.

He gave her an updown, realizing just how dirty she was, her face smudged with chocolate and her hair falling out of it's ponytail.

Ralph led her silently to one of the living room chairs and had her sit, before retrieving a wet rag from the bathroom. He handed it to her, knowing she'd kill him with her glares and refuse to talk if he even tried to clean her off himself. Then, while she scrubbed chocolate off her face and picked candy pieces from her clothing, he kneeled in front of her, rubbing his temples and trying not to lose it. "Vanellope… what are you doing here? Do you know how dangerous it is for a girl your age to be running through game central station? Alone? In the middle of the night." If anything had happened to her-

"Yeah…" It was the first words spoken from the little girl, breaking him of his protective thoughts. "I know."

"Then why did you come here?" He got no response. Only another halfhearted shrug. Ralph sighed again, standing. "Come on, I'll take you back."

"NO!" The loud noise made him jump.

"No?"

She looked back down, tugging on her sleeve. "I- I had a bad dream."

Something in his chest expanded at the sound of her small voice, scared and pitiful. He kneeled down once again and soon found himself pounced on by a trembling girl who had jumped off the couch, her face in his shirt front and her hands wound round the fabric. "It was really scary," he could make out from the muffled sounds she was making into his side, "I had to make sure… the cybug… it was my fault… it got _you_. And you didn't come back this time. And-and I w-was a-alone."

"Hey! Hey, I'm okay," large hands wrapped around her body as she buried herself deeper into his shirt, not wanting him to see her cry. But he could feel the warmth of tears as they soaked through his clothes. "Look! I'm fine! Nothing happened to me!"

"I know," came the muffled reply. "B-but it was really bad-"

Ralph hugged her closer with his one hand and checked the clock on the bookshelf. It read 1:30 in glowing pixels. He groaned and she looked up at him, hands still gripping the soft, plaid fabric, tears streaking her face.

"Kid, I have to take you back-"

"No…" her face was back to being hidden, whimpering. For a minute he didn't hear anything. And then, in the tinniest voice she had ever used she mustered the courage to ask, "can I stay with you?"

He was going to say no, should have said no. But somehow he didn't have the heart to. It made it especially hard when she looked up at him again, eyes the widest he'd ever seen them and said, "I just don't wanna be alone." For a kid that could be so annoying, she really knew how to pluck at his heartstrings.

Well, he thought, giving in, what would one night do? She was, after all, a nine year old living by herself in a game. Even when he'd been younger he'd had other people. This girl had no one.

And it _was_ Sunday morning. No one would be coming in all day, so there'd be no rush to get her back. After all, he'd planned to sleep in, maybe make pancakes in the morning in his new kitchen.

So, shrugging subconsciously, he stood up, nodding. "Fine. For tonight." He led her to where the guest room was and, after going through something that mirrored a bed time routine- getting her water, tucking her in, turning out the light and telling her that he was just next door, if she needed anything, though she looked slightly distressed when he left- he crawled back into his own bed.

Sometime later, when sleep had taken over once again and his brain was filled with fuzz, he could have sworn he heard tiny footsteps in the room, but he just assumed Vanellope had gotten up for more water or to use the bathroom, so ignored it. And when he felt a weight on his bed he just assumed it to be a figment of his imagination, and so ignored that as well. But when something warm shimmied itself under the covers and burrowed itself next to him he decided to stop assuming, and opened one eye to look down.

Vanellope, who was looking a little worse for the wear, was now tucked against his chest, eyes forced closed and head tucked down so she resembled a ball. Ralph, for a moment, thought about taking her back to her own bed. But the mental shrugging that his mind seemed to be doing quite a lot lately, made him think otherwise. He shifted slightly and tucked the blankets around her. Tomorrow he'd have to talk to her about sleeping arrangements if this ever was to happen again. Then again, he really didn't mind all that much.

Leaning back against the pillow he closed his eyes, listening to all the sounds around him. The old ones- crickets chirping, neighbors snoring like truckers, Felix making strange mewing sounds from an open window below him as he slept. And the new ones- Vanellope's breathing, in and out, and occasional sound as she spoke in her sleep to someone he couldn't see. But at least, from what he could tell, she wasn't having nightmares any more.

Content that he had done his job by vanishing the monsters in her mind, Ralph settled back into the pillows, winding one hand around the girl and pulling her closer. And then, finally content that all was well, he too fell asleep.

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**Part two comign soon(ish). If the hurricane turns off all my power, then it'll come in a week. That goes for everything else!**

**Love you all! And see you on the flip side!**


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